Beyond Plutocracy - True Democracy for America

Some Reader Comments

These comments were not written by family members, friends, other authors as favors, or paid reviewers but by people I didn’t know who were inspired and motivated to write to me after reading this book. I welcome your thoughts about the government design presented in Beyond Plutocracy. I will reply to e-mails as long as I am able.

Roger Rothenberger

E-mail: roger.rothenberger@gmail.com

* … you seem to have hammered the bright point of a world-spanning, evolved consciousness down into the gross material world, where it is needed to shine. A truly impressive achievement.

* I am consistently amazed at the cerebral altitude you have obtained, which envelopes so many important details and manages them so well!

* … truly original and very thought provoking … extraordinary work …

* Brilliant! A breakthrough!

* I've started reading your book for a second time, and I've come to believe that it is one of the most profound works I've read in my life.

What kind of a political book and government design could possibly earn such comments?

In Brief

Capitalism, the market economy, is our best form of economic relationship. But capitalism has a very deep flaw. It tends toward monopoly. It concentrates excessive power, wealth, and advantage into the hands of all too often ruthless, greedy elites who exploit the rest of the populace, corrupt our government, and override the common good.

Capitalism is redeemable. A sound, balanced, equitable market economy can be achieved by the wise management of an honest government. But we don’t have an honest government that truly includes and represents the entire electorate.

Our government’s principal dishonesty is its electoral system. Elections are left to a marketplace, mass media, two political parties, and state electoral district systems that are mostly owned, operated, and dominated by the wealthy. Elections, offices, and the favors of our government are bought and sold just like any other commodity. The result is that wealthy and wealth-serving elites hold a permanent hegemony of seats, offices, and power in our government and we get stuck with the best government that money can buy.

Direct democracy—in which the electorate votes directly on issues—is the correct way to overcome the tyranny of plutocracy. But as the phrases the tyranny of democracy and the rule of the mob suggest, democracy also has some profound problems and can become a tyranny in its own way.

It is by adding to our government (or to any government) just the right kind and amount of direct democracy that its representative branches are rendered truly representative of the entire electorate; the tyranny of plutocracy is overcome; the democracy itself does not become a tyranny; and the responsible personal freedom of the individual is maximized in a just, equitable society.

Our government will never become OUR government, the government of we the people, all of the people, until we add to it an honest electoral system and true democracy. That is exactly what is achieved in this book. The result is the honest government, equitable market economy, and good society we all seek.

Dedication

To the great souls throughout

history that sacrificed, suffered

and fought the good fight for

the advancement of just,

equitable inclusion and freedom

for everyone in our world.

Beyond Plutocracy

True Democracy for America

Roger D. Rothenberger

Copyright 2012 Roger D. Rothenberger

Smashwords Edition

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The manuscript for Beyond Plutocracy is registered at the U. S. Copyright Office. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please go to www.smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

All Table of Contents and Figures entries are hyperlinks. All chapter numbers throughout the book are hyperlinks that return here.

Introduction

1: Dominance and Plutocracy

2: Dominance and Plutocracy the American Way

3: The Writing and Ratification of the American Constitution

4: The Modern -isms: Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism

5: Reorganizing the Powers of the American Government

6: True Democracy: The Demos, the Fourth Branch of Government

7: The Demos System: Convenience, Simplicity, and Security

8: Membership in the Demos, Privilege Verses Obligation

9: Consensus Democracy

10: Consensus Government, Consensus Capitalism, and Consensus Society

11: The Demos Issues

12: Federal Tax Rate

13: Tax Burden Division

14: Corporate Tax Scale

15: Income Tax Scale

16: Inheritance Tax Scale

17: Tax Revenue Allocation

18: Amount of Debt or Savings

19: Standard Workweek

20: Minimum Wage

21: The Demos Electoral System

22: The Extremes and the Rate of Change of the Demos Consensus on Issues

23: Congressional Legislative Reform

24: Democracy 101

25: Government, Business, and the Definition of Labor

26: How to Bring True Democracy to America

27: The Effect of the Demos on American Society

28: Social Efficiency and the Quality of Life

29: Us versus Them

30: Beyond Plutocracy

Appendix 1: Demos Computer Calculations

Appendix 2: Revenue, Income, and Inheritance Tax Calculation

Appendix 3: Simplifying the Tax Code

Band of Webmasters

About Me and the Writing of Beyond Plutocracy

Endnotes

Click endnote numbers, always in brackets [1] within text, to go to and return from endnotes.

Demos Issues List

Chapter 11, Demos Issues: A list of the twelve issues included in the demos

Figures

Chapter 5, Figure 1: The effect of the distribution of political power on personal freedom

Appendix 1, Figure 1: The nine economic demos issues and their voting methods

Appendix 1, Figure 2: Conversion of the three color values to a single resultant value

Appendix 1, Figure 3: The relationship of the demos issues

The figures in this ebook to which the above links lead may not be viewable on tiny devices with small screens. If your device is not up to the task, use a larger device such as a desktop, notebook, or tablet computer with an Internet browser. Copy the desired link below to the address line of your larger device’s Internet browser.

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Introduction [1]

Plutocracy is governance by the wealthy. Most of America’s many political, economic, and social ills are caused or aggravated by its most fundamental problem: America is not really a democracy but a plutocracy overwhelmingly dominated and operated by a wealthy few. Our government was created by, is populated by, and first and best serves wealthy elites that hold a perpetual hegemony of power and wealth through the generations, much to the detriment of the rest of the populace.

Elections are left to a marketplace, mass media, and political parties that are mostly owned and operated by the wealthy. Elections, offices, and the favors of government are bought just like any other commodity. Most of the populace is effectively disenfranchised and rendered powerless while individual freedom and economic security are increasingly crushed by the twin assaults of ever growing governmental and corporate power.

The existence of two major political parties and a few minor ones at times gives the illusion and feeds the myth that America is a democracy and we have real choices during elections. But the principal electoral choices have already been made by the wealthy and by the preliminary electoral process long before the electoral process ever reaches the vast majority of the electorate. The government remains perpetually populated by the wealthy and wealth-serving who mostly haggle over how to best manage their plutocracy. The economic bottom half and its needs are effectively excluded from government and its decisions. A political cartoon comes to mind that illustrates our true situation: A giant wealthy fat cat complete with a top hat, a big cigar, and a cynical smile is standing legs apart and arms spread outward above the many tiny people below, the electorate. He laughingly exclaims, You may take my Right hand or my Left hand, but you always get me!

Applying superficial band-aids to our government such as reforming campaign financing, creating term limits, cleaning up scandals, kicking the current bums out of office, or struggling with third parties or independent candidates will never fix the problem. The problem is not about people; it is not about who currently occupies political office, our party or candidates verses others.

The real problem is the political system itself, the fundamental design and structure of our government. While creating a constitution and government in the name of all of the people and claiming to favor no particular faction, the founders—fifty-five powerful wealthy men—in fact wrote a constitution and created a government that overwhelmingly favored themselves and similar others. It continues to favor similar others—powerful wealthy elites, the plutocrats—through the generations to this day.

Until the fundamental imbalance of political power that overwhelmingly favors the wealthy is corrected, all attempts at repairing our nation’s many ills are doomed to very limited success or outright failure. Correcting this imbalance of power requires a partial redesign of our government.

Most political correctives offered today fail both at overcoming plutocracy and at adequately achieving and securing the freedom of the individual. This book offers for your consideration a partial redesign of the American government that really fixes in just the right way what is really wrong with it.

The government design presented here strikes a judicious balance of political power that, unlike the design of the founders, really does not unduly favor any particular group. It achieves a truly democratic process and the consensus of the entire electorate on our nation’s most important issues. It results in the honest representation of all members of the electorate in the representative branches of government. It mitigates the worst and brings out the best that our market economy has to offer. It achieves and secures the fullest freedom of the individual and liberty in the nation. And it nurtures responsibility and excellence in each of us.

Also, of crucial importance for the existence and success of any truly democratic process involving a busy electorate whose members have varying capability, the democratic process presented here is very convenient. It requires surprisingly little time and effort. And it is simple enough for those who are not politically sophisticated and sophisticated enough for those who are politically astute.

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The distribution of power is the most fundamental of all political issues. Good government and a good society require the correct distribution of power as their foundation. Excessive power cannot be held by an elite few, the simple majority, or any other faction of the populace.

Joining direct democracy and representative democracy together in just the right way achieves a correct distribution of power resulting in a government that overcomes the shortcomings of both. Direct democracy is people directly voting on issues. Representative democracy—truly representative democracy!—is people voting in truly free elections for representatives that honestly represent the entire electorate and populace in government.

Most people mistakenly believe that America already practices representative democracy. But it does not. This can be readily seen when our current so-called representative democracy with its extreme concentrations of power and wealth and widespread social injustice is compared by you, dear reader, with the truly representative democracy proposed in this book. Understand that it is by the inclusion of just the right kind and amount of direct democracy that the representative branches of our government (or any government) are rendered truly representative.

By itself, so-called representative democracy only results in the tyranny of plutocracy, exploitive governance by the wealthy. But the usually proposed alternative, unlimited majority-rule direct democracy, were it ever tried, would only result in the tyranny of democracy, the political, economic, religious, and behavioral tyranny of the simple majority over the rest of the populace. And, examined more closely, this majority would really only be a highly organized, doggedly active, radical political minority.

However, limited direct democracy and limited representative democracy joined together and judiciously balanced as described in this book results in a wise amount and just distribution of governmental powers that does not unduly favor any particular group.

The limited direct democracy proposed here would be added to our government as a new fourth branch called the demos, pronounced as in democratic. Adding a new definition to those that already exist for the word, a demos is a direct democracy branch of a government consisting of a nationwide electronic network in which an electorate consisting of all of-age, able citizens practice consensus democracy by deliberating, voting, and achieving consensus on a fixed set of a nation’s key economic and electoral issues, setting economic values the government and the nation must use as they function and electing to the representative branches of the government bodies of officeholders that demographically resemble the entire electorate and truly represent the entire body of citizens.

Less precisely but more simply stated, a demos is a branch of government in which all of-age citizens directly vote and achieve consensus on a fixed set of a nation’s key economic issues and elect officeholders to the representative branches of the government.

This book is focused principally on a particular demos to be added to the American federal government. But the problem of plutocracy plagues all governments. Adapted to the specific needs of other locales, a demos could and should be added to every government in the world and to every level of government.

~~~~~~~

In the demos, practicing a new kind of democracy called consensus democracy that will be described briefly in this introduction and discussed at length within the chapters of this book, the electorate directly deliberates, votes, and achieves consensus on a fixed set of twelve issues—three electoral issues and nine economic issues.

In the three electoral issues, in an entirely new electoral system from that which we have today, the electorate directly elects the president, all senators, and all representatives:

* Election of the president

* Election of senators

* Election of representatives

And the electorate directly deliberates, votes, and achieves consensus that becomes law on the following nine economic issues:

* Overall federal tax rate (which, over time, determines the size of the federal government)

* Division of the tax burden among three tax revenue sources: corporations and businesses, personal incomes, and inheritances

* Corporate and business tax scale

* Personal income tax scale

* Inheritance tax scale

* Hours in the workweek

* Minimum wage

* Amount of federal debt or savings

* Portion of federal tax revenue for the military, healthcare, other entitlements, and all other government functions

This may be a moment of doubt for you. While repairing our electoral system may seem reasonable, given our current mess, it may seem impractical and even shocking to you that the entire electorate would be directly involved in making such important economic decisions. How could millions of people participate in deliberations? How could the entire electorate possibly discuss and set something as complex as a tax scale? Even if effective deliberation and consensus could somehow happen, shouldn’t experts, not average people, handle such important economic issues? And what kind of democracy is this, when the electorate only votes on a fixed set of twelve issues, as opposed to an open stream of referendums over time about many different social issues?

All I can ask of you at this point, dear reader, is to set aside your doubts for now, keep an open mind, and keep reading. There are compelling reasons for the kind and amount of direct democracy included in the partial redesign of the American government presented here. Please remain receptive to an understanding and appreciation of both the necessity and the desirability of placing the above electoral and economic powers directly into the hands of the electorate. And tools and methods will be presented to you that not only make it possible but surprisingly simple and convenient for members of the electorate to effectively deliberate, vote, and achieve consensus.

~~~~~~~

Unlike the winner-take-all, majority-rule democracy of old in which the simple majority vote wins and all others lose, the consensus democracy described here and practiced by the electorate in the demos has no winners and losers but results in the consensus of the entire electorate, a moderate golden mean that avoids all extremes.

As discussed in Appendix 1, this consensus of the entire electorate is possible because the vote tallies for the nine economic issues included in the demos are processed by computers resulting in mathematical values that are equally influenced by every person’s vote. Thus, each member of the electorate equally affects economic values our government and nation must use as they function. And the electoral system included in the demos automatically results in a demographic resemblance to and the honest representation of the entire electorate in the representative branches, which may also be considered to be the consensus of the electorate.

The electorate’s consensus in the demos on the economic and electoral issues creates in a third way what may be considered to be a consensus of the entire electorate. Functioning using the economic values set by the entire electorate; demographically resembling the entire electorate in body, mind, interests, and pocketbook; and truly representing the entire electorate, the now truly representative branches of government will write laws and rules for government, corporations, business, labor, mass media, environmental protection, etc. that wisely serve the entire electorate and the nation as a whole.

Unlike today’s periodic elections, voting in the demos is ongoing. Each member of the electorate has a vote permanently riding on each issue included in the demos that, with one exception discussed later, he or she may change at any time. Demos computers continuously recalculate vote tallies to maintain the current consensus of the electorate which serves as our social contract.

The demos has been designed to function as an integrated homeostatic system. Heartbeat, respiration and temperature regulation within our bodies are homeostatic systems. The tendency of a homeostatic system is to avoid the extremes and to hover around a moderate norm. Each of the economic issues included in the demos functions like a homeostatic system, ever hovering about a moderate economic norm. And the carefully chosen issues form an interrelated whole. Taken collectively, they function like the interactive, self-orchestrating systems in a living organism. The electorate uses the demos as a tool to achieve a moderate consensus on a few values that our government and nation must use as they function, keeping our society functioning smoothly and evolving peacefully as demographics, conditions, and our decisions change.

~~~~~~~

The three demos electoral issues involve the direct election of the president, senators, and representatives in an entirely new electoral system.

Our current electoral system is a set of loaded dice that overwhelmingly favors the powerful, wealthy few in two principal ways.

First, elections are left to a marketplace, mass media, and two political parties that are mostly owned and operated by the wealthy rather than being within and supported by government where they belong, equally accessible to all of us. Most of us are resigned to rapidly selecting what we guess might be the lesser of evils from among a few poorly known, fork-tongued candidates financed and, therefore, pre-selected by the wealthy. Few run for and win office that do not have the blessings and support of and now owe Big Money big-time.

Second, if throwing huge amounts of money at the electoral process were not enough of an advantage for the wealthy, dividing states into electoral districts and electing only one senator or representative within each of them virtually guarantees that wealthy or wealth-serving candidates will win the lion’s share of electoral offices and that the wealthy will hold a permanent hegemony of power within government while the poor and minorities go vastly under-represented. When only one candidate can be elected in a district, a candidate with lots of money to throw around will usually successfully buy the electoral office or seat being contested. While the wealthy inevitably manage to buy the first seat in a district, others—the lower middle class, the working poor, and minorities—could elect their champions to second, third, etc. seats in the district. Oops! There’s only one seat in the district.

The demos electoral system completely eliminates these and other problems making the electoral process honest and fair.

In the demos electoral system the Electoral College (which currently elects the president) and all state electoral district systems are entirely scrapped. The president and all senators are elected by direct popular vote from the nation at-large, and each state’s quota of representatives is elected from the state at-large.

All periodic elections, including all primary elections, are scrapped and replaced by a simple ongoing electoral system. In a manner similar to the nine demos economic issues in which each member of the electorate keeps a vote riding on each issue, each member keeps a vote riding on one candidate for president, one for senator, and one for representative.

The demos electoral system has a single national Presidential Candidates list and a single national Senatorial Candidates list. Each state has its own single Representative Candidates list. Any number of people may run for office. The person currently receiving the most votes in the Presidential Candidates list, the top 100 people in the Senatorial Candidates list, and each state’s quota of representatives from its Representative Candidates list are currently seated in office. Discussed in detail later, a person gains or loses office when he or she gains or loses a sufficient number of votes relative to other candidates in the office’s Candidates list.

Candidates (who need not be wealthy or wealth supported) may take any amount of time to run for office for free within the demos and build a following. Members of the electorate may take any amount of time to study and deliberate about candidates and to reach out to each other across states or the entire nation to directly elect their champions, truly representative officeholders that resemble them in body, mind, interests, and pocketbook.

It is the electing of senators from within the nation at-large and a state’s quota of representatives from within the state at-large that overcomes the wealth-dominated, one-elective-office-per-district problem and empowers each member of the electorate to join with others to select their champions. While others vote for their good candidates (who I may consider to be bad) from within these large pools—from the entire nation or an entire state—I and others like me vote for our good candidates from within the same large pools (who others may consider to be bad).

Thus, no member of the electorate is stuck selecting a lesser evil from a small group preselected by the wealthy as is done today. All voters support their goods, their champions, those who resemble and truly represent them. The resulting senate and house automatically demographically resemble and serve the true and balanced interests of the entire electorate. No quota systems, political parties, or complex electoral schemes are required. People just get to directly vote for whom they really want.

The ongoing nature of the demos electoral process and its at-large method of voting have immense virtues. Any number of candidates may run for office, and all candidates, rich and poor alike, have a free place—an Internet-like web site containing one or more pages within a nationwide electronic demos network—and unlimited time to run for office, present themselves and their positions and proposals, and earn a following. By the time candidates receive enough votes to gain office in this ongoing electoral process, they, their proposals, and their entire political and voting history in previous offices will have been long studied and deliberated. The candidates will be well known and trusted by those who support them. A candidate and his or her supporters will be able to extend their political views and efforts outside the demos in ways that best serve their needs. Just as today, the wealthy may buy any media and other electoral advantages they may find. But unlike today, the free, ongoing, at-large demos electoral process also gives non-wealthy people the means and unlimited time to reach out to each other across their states or the entire nation in support of candidates that serve their needs and interests, even as they also go out into their neighborhoods and communities, organize, and educate friends, neighbors, co-workers, and others as to their true interests.

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Two proposals in this book are designed to make the senate and the house more democratic by breaking up their current old-boys’ clubs with their excessive concentrations of power and self-serving legislative rules and processes: 1) All current systems of seniority and appointment in the senate and the house are scrapped, all committee and other chairs and positions being filled by the secret voting of their entire memberships. 2) All rules regarding parliamentary and legislative processes within the senate and the house are determined by the secret voting of their entire memberships. The debate and the voting on legislation being proposed and considered remain public.

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The demos practices consensus democracy to achieve economic consensus and electoral consensus on some of our nation’s most important issues. Now demographically resembling and honestly serving the entire electorate, congress creates laws and policies that may be taken to be the legislative consensus of the entire electorate. Founded upon the principle of including and achieving the consensus of the entire electorate, I have named this form of government consensus government. It gives real meaning at long last to the phrase government by the consent of the governed.

Summarizing this government design and function in a paragraph: All of our nation’s political, economic, and social activity takes place within or under consensus government’s largest framework of just the right kind and amount of direct democracy judiciously balanced with what has now become truly representative democracy. The consensus democracy practiced by the electorate within the demos achieves economic and electoral consensus on twelve included issues and a deliberative process that informs the representative branches and, indeed, the entire nation as to the true mind and will of the electorate on the many other issues it discusses. The demos directly sets nine fundamental economic values that the government and nation must use as they function. This always moderate, ever current consensus of the electorate changes slowly over time as demographics, conditions, and our decisions change. The demos electoral process empowers the members of the electorate to come together within states and across the entire nation to elect to the representative branches their true champions, those who resemble them in body, mind, interests, and pocketbook. The resulting representative bodies, (which, recall, have been made to function more democratically), automatically demographically resemble and truly represent the entire electorate and all of its interests. Using (by constitutional law) the economic values set by the electorate in the demos and informed by its deliberations, members of the representative bodies deliberate, compromise, enact, and enforce legislation and rules that truly serve the entire electorate. This just, inclusive, consensus-building design that does not unduly favor any part of the populace achieves a stable, long-lasting government and society that functions sensibly, always tends toward moderation, and evolves peacefully over time. The results are a strong moral compass, a steady sense of direction, and the good government and society that we all seek.

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Oh, but as a potential member of a future demos all of this possibly makes you nervous or even fearful, if not for yourself then about certain others who couldn’t chew gum and turn a door knob at the same time? The responsibility! The difficulty! The time! I’m so busy! I’m not sure I’m capable! Economic issues? What do I know about economics? I’m not really a political person! And those idiots down the street, they couldn’t make a wise or even a sane choice to save their lives!

Let’s take a look at what would be involved, at what your involvement might be. (You get a wide choice as to how involved you want to be in the demos.)

What about your capability on some of the economic questions included in the demos? As you answer these questions, just use your own good sense. What do you think would be in your self-interest? What do you think would be good for our nation? Okay, here we go: 1) Do you think our national government should be larger, smaller, or stay at its current size? 2) Do you think the amount of our national debt should be increased, decreased, or left at the current amount? 3) Let’s say that the current minimum wage is $5.75 per hour. Do you think the minimum wage should be increased, decreased, or left at the current amount?

You see? This is not rocket science. You won’t be running the economy or the country. But those who are running the country will be people selected by you and the rest of the electorate—people you really want in office!—and, by constitutional law, they will have to run the country using economic values that are set by you. You and the rest of the electorate will also decide how the tax burden that we have set upon ourselves is distributed among us. There is no reason to fear this because a way has been figured out that makes it really easy for you to make the right choices for yourself. Even the idiots down the street will be able to do it. And yet, as easy as these questions are to answer, you will be answering some of our nation’s most important questions.

What makes it possible for an electorate of busy people possessing widely varying capability to vote on such important issues? When just the right issues are selected, only a few issues need to be included, and with these issues it is easy to understand one’s true self-interest. A surprisingly simple method of voting on economic issues is used based on the traffic signal colors green, yellow, and red. (It is described in Appendix 1. Other colors and voting methods would be available for those who need them.) The voter never comes in contact with any mathematical calculations but only makes a few simple choices.

Your votes continuously ride on the issues. Your economic situation and interests have significantly changed? You changed your mind about who you want to serve as a senator? Or you have come to believe that our nation should move in a different direction? When your situation in life changes or you change your mind about this or that issue, you can conveniently change one or more of your votes at any time from almost anywhere including from your own home. Whether kept as is or changed, each vote must be refreshed at least once a year.

While voting on the nine economic and three electoral issues included in the demos is a civic obligation, participation in demos deliberations is optional. If you know your mind, as most of us will, voting can take as little as five or ten minutes per year.

But, you might ask, shouldn’t economic matters be left to the experts? And, other than picking a famous name on a ballot, I wouldn’t know who to vote for.

Do not confuse the expertise that politicians and corporations have mastered at swindling you with scientific and economic expertise. Millions have been swindled out of their private pensions, investments, and life savings; many millions have never had healthcare while millions more have joined them in recent years; and taxes are routinely dumped by the wealthy onto the middle class. Both parents working today struggle harder to finance a family than one breadwinner did decades ago. Hundreds of thousands of low-paid foreign technical workers have been imported into America on special visas and millions of others have been allowed to sneak across our borders to replace our more expensive workers, suppressing the wages of most Americans, (except, of course, those of the wealthy elite). Millions of good jobs have been exported to cheap abused labor in countries that do not protect the environment. One trade agreement after another help multinational corporations while destroying increasing numbers of American workers. Our nation is now several trillion dollars in debt and the middle class is awash in a sea of debt while the super wealthy hold many trillions of dollars of accumulation. In the last three decades trillions of dollars have been taken from the middle class by the wealthiest Americans. America has become divided into a relatively small super wealthy class while the vast majority has found itself in economic decline. And everywhere government-favored, super-sized multinational corporations reign supreme. The corporate elite and the members of both political parties work together against your interests.

Exactly which experts do you think are on your side and are going to make better decisions for you than you? On certain important matters elected officials never honestly represent you. You must represent yourself.

And you may feel a bit lost at first having the freedom to choose anyone you want to represent you in Washington. But all kinds of smart and good people in the middle and bottom of the American economic heap, people who will work hard for you, are going to step up to the plate and be recognized by other smart and good people. The demos, your circle of family, friends, and co-workers, your neighborhood, and your community will be abuzz with wise opinions. By the time you are empowered to make such choices, you will feel adequate to make them.

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At this point the more politically astute and capable reader may feel that to accommodate the less capable voters the demos has been made so simple that it cannot handle the more sophisticated or subtle aspects of political thought. Not so!

Each of the twelve demos issues’ voting pages will link to pages hosting deliberations of the issue. Those who opt to participate in deliberations may make their own arguments on issues, bringing any ideas into the debates. And they may